The Individuals With Disabilities Act of 1990 guaranteed full access to the community for the disabled; a process described in education and rehabilitation literature as inclusion.
One barrier to public access is the inability of people who require orthopedic seating to use standard size and design furniture. Prescription orthopedic seating, prescription wheelchairs, are required by many disabled individuals. These chairs are molded and fitted to an individual's hip and spine support needs. To take advantage of a seat's postural control the user's back must be and remain adjacent to the chairback. Restraints such as seatbelts, crotch pommels, wrap-around headbands, and foot straps keep the body elevated and the back in contact with the chairback.
The circumstance of standard design table framing often blocks the lateral side supports of wheelchairs and prevents chair access to the space underneath the table. U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,732 to Ostergaard, II et al, Jan. 28, 1986 explains that even "if the wheelchair can be brought into close proximity with the table, very often it is found that, due to the chair's dimensions, the occupant is seated too low to reach the table surface conveniently. The problem is increased in magnitude when the occupant is either a small child or is a person having limited upper body mobility." This situation makes an extended reach necessary to get to the table surface of conventional furniture. Extended reaching pulls a wheelchair bound person's back away from his/her chair. This prompts fighting the restraints and forfeiting chair supports to get hands and head nearer to where stimulation is, to be responsive to social engagement and not be isolated.
Prior art inventions that attempted to solve the problem of mounting a table or tray surface to the wheelchair are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,878,685 3,606,450, and 5,228,711, that illustrate wheelchair mounted solutions to this challenge.
Alternately, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,679,509 and 5,711,572 disclose inventions that depart from the wheelchair mounting of a substantial work surface to a separate wheelchair table and foldable table with foldable chair combination respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697.668 to Chuan-Pao on Dec. 16, 1997 discloses an invention intended to solve the problem of presenting a substantial flat work surface "to a wide variety of builds of users" in a standard furniture desk chair structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,631,643 to Koster, Detlef on Dec. 23, 1986 discloses a demountable multi-purpose light table which presents a height adjustable, substantial work surface with variable intensity lighting housed within the table framing. However, the forward wheels of orthopedic seating are blocked from rolling under the table by framing bars which join the side legs of the table.
Standard practice in the field of assistive technology includes individualized fitting of prescription wheelchairs with rigid sheet trays. These trays make no accommodation to access the use of standard furniture, no accommodation to the use of low-intensity lighting. They have unintentional effects such as tilting along with the wheelchair they are attached to even when a horizontal work surface is desirable.
Adaptive furniture designs include supports called "prone-standers" which are large, rectangular steel frame housings for complete body support from feet to head to hold a person erect and facing a table, typically once which has been slaved to the body support apparatus. This standard practice design suffers from defects in that: the size of the structural framework needed to combine full body support with a table requires significant square footage; this competes with the space needs of others in a classroom or recreation room; the weight of prone-stander type equipment requires it to be on coasters and therefore to occupy aisle space.
Wheelchair accessible public access workstations are advancement. They allow adult size wheelchairs to pass under the table surface part of the workstation. Lowest table height settings vary but work surface height of all workstations prohibits their use by young children. Workstation framing interferes or prohibits with the line of sight in the direction the occupant is facing; their rigid frame height blocks the sightlines of others in the user's environment.
Search of patent and commercial prior art shows employment of features used in my invention: cantilevering of the front side edge of a table top towards the user, underlighting to remove shadows and highlight the form of objects on the table's surface, presentation of an adjustable, substantial work surface to a disabled individual, and flexible height adjustment. No prior art employing all these features in combination was found.
More important to this invention no evidence of the use of table frame mounted, flexible position support for upper body and head posture in the cubic space above a substantial work surface was found.
Additionally, no evidence of table frame mounted supports of variable degrees of resistance to pressure from body movements and weight was found.
Additionally, no evidence of any invention or product featuring table frame mounted support for body movements and posture in the cubic space above a substantial work surface which may be customized to a specific task or disability was found.
Additionally, no invention employing the combination of a table frame mounted rigid pole for holding large objects in the cubic space above a substantial work surface in combination with a plurality of position, length, and resistance variable supports for objects and body posture in the cubic space above a substantial work surface was found.
Additionally, no invention that provided full upper body posture support and task organization assistance in a manner that facilitates user access to the standard furniture common to public places was found.
Limitations in prior art recommends a table system which has the following characteristics: a) a substantial flat surface in conjunction with height adjustability for juvenile to adult sized seating b) a means of assisting people to manage and use the cubic space above substantial flat surface areas c) a means of providing multi-directional lighting to the cubic space above a substantial flat surface d) a means of providing the advantages of a, b, and c in a manner that integrates the handicapped individual into the mainstream of activity by providing the customized support they need along with access to furnitures of standard design and proportions in a way that doesn't exhaust the square footage resources of a room.